Later That Day
by Mercury's Winter
Summary: Challenge response. Takes place immediately after my fic Day After The Wrath. How does the rest of the crew resond to seeing Harper and Rommie walking arm-in-arm?


Title: Later That Day  
  
Author: Mercury's Winter  
  
Archive: Ask Please  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, this is just in fun and no profit is being made.  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Setting/Season: Season 3  
  
Spoilers: DOJ-DOW, my fic Day After The Wrath  
  
Warnings: Not beta'd  
  
Summary: Challenge response. MikeJoe wanted to know what happened when the rest of the crew saw Harper and Rommie walking arm-in-arm.  
  
A/N: Sorry it took so long MJ, hope you like it!  
  
****  
  
Harper grinned and held out his arm invitingly, "Shall we my dear?" Rommie linked her arm through his and the two friends set off down the corridor to their favorite machine shop.  
  
****  
  
Harper's grin couldn't have been wider as he escorted the object of his obsession through Andromeda's labyrinth of corridors.  
  
He was so wrapped up in wistful imaginings that, as the pair rounded a corner, he ran face first into Trance. If it hadn't been for Rommie's hand on his arm, his backside would have met the deckplates.  
  
Harper regained his balanced and eyed Trance, "Hey my Golden Goddess, where are you off to in such a rush?"  
  
Trance met Harper's gaze evenly, "Harper, a short man can hide in the tall grass but a golden warrior leaves no path upon the sand."  
  
Harper raised one eyebrow and glanced at Rommie, "Huh?"  
  
Rommie merely shook her head, her eyes wide.  
  
Trance's face cleared suddenly, she put her hand to her forehead and shuddered, "Sorry. I've been watching too much 'Twin Peaks' again, huh?"   
  
Harper and Rommie nodded warily.   
  
Trance shook her head once, blinking her eyes like she was trying to get rid of an annoying headache, suddenly she was back to her normal self. "I'm on my way to med bay to check on the casualties we picked up on Bangor Drift."  
  
"Ah, those poor schlubs," Harper said as he and Rommie stepped aside. Harper made a grand sweeping gesture with his free arm and grinned cheekily, "Carry on then."   
  
Trance sidled past the two and continued on her way. She had gone only a few feet when she paused and glanced back at Harper and Rommie. The pair had resumed their journey, still arm-in-arm. "Andromeda," Trance called.  
  
Andromeda's hologram appeared in front of her. "Yes Trance?"  
  
"Are you feeling all right?"  
  
"All systems performing within acceptable parameters." She stated with a small smug smile.  
  
Trance nodded thoughtfully. "How is your avatar?"  
  
The hologram paused while she checked up on her 'little sister'. "Interesting." She said, pursing her virtual lips.  
  
Trance smiled enigmatically at the distracted ship and continued on to med bay.  
  
****************  
  
After his conversation with Rommie, Dylan felt the need to work off some excess energy. He changed into shorts and a muscle shirt, laced up his shoes and started warming up for his daily run.   
  
He swung by the gym and picked up Tyr, together they jogged their normal circuit of Andromeda's winding corridors.  
  
"So, I trust the Persieds were able to remove any threat posed by the Balance of Judgment from your robot's systems?" Tyr said conversationally as their feet rhythmically slapped the deck.  
  
"Tyr, you don't trust anything." Dylan retorted.  
  
Tyr allowed a slight smirk, "Touché Captain. I guess the more accurate question would be, do *you* trust her?"  
  
Dylan allowed Tyr's words to echo around them a moment before answering. Without breaking stride or even allowing the Nietzschean the courtesy of a glare, he said, "With my life."  
  
Tyr glanced sideways at the High Guard relic. "What about with my life?"  
  
Dylan stopped abruptly causing Tyr to backpedal. "What's the difference?"  
  
Tyr bristled and took a deep breath, preparing to let the captain have it with both barrels, luckily for Dylan, the Kodiak was interrupted by the sounds of approaching laughter.  
  
"And then *I* said to the Than waitress, 'There's a bug in my soup!'" Harper and Rommie appeared, arms still linked. "And she said, 'Oh No! Cousin Leroy can't swim!'" Rommie laughed hysterically at his inane joke, lightly swatting his shoulder flirtatiously as they walked.  
  
Dylan and Tyr, their discussion-turned-argument completely forgotten, stared open-mouthed at the spectacle.  
  
Harper, noticing they had an audience, slapped a sloppy salute at the pair as they passed, "Evenin' gentlemen."  
  
Rommie threw a little wave over her shoulder at her flummoxed captain and weapons officer before she and Harper disappeared around the next bend.  
  
"What the hell was that?" Dylan exclaimed, still frozen in place by surprise.  
  
"The android is clearly off her nut." Tyr said as shook his head and started jogging down the corridor once more. Dylan could hear him call out as he reached a nearby junction "Still trust her with your life?"   
  
Tyr, for his part, could hear the captain calling for the ship's AI for another two decks.  
  
***************  
  
On med deck, Beka was helping Trance with the refugees from Bangor Drift. "I can't believe anyone survived the Kalderan attack, they really leveled that drift."   
  
Trance shook her head sadly. "I know, there's so much cruelty in the universe. Do you suppose they'll re-build?"  
  
Beka finished bandaging an elderly man's head wound, "I suppose, I mean it's always been such a tourist trap, the FTA will probably foot the bill and they'll all be back in business in no time."  
  
Trance moved to the medical console and tried to retrieve her patient's medical history. The screen remained blank and she gave it a small tap.   
  
"What's up?" Beka asked, noticing the alien's difficulty.  
  
Trance smiled, "Well, I guess Andromeda is otherwise occupied."  
  
"What'd you mean by that?" Beka began to examine the console for any obvious reason for its malfunction.  
  
"Well," Trance said, her eyes lighting up at the prospect of spreading some juicy gossip, "On my way here, I ran into Harper and Rommie..."  
  
"Are they ok?" Beka interrupted, she was concerned about Harper's reaction to the android after recent events.  
  
Trance looked confused "Yeah, they're fine," She waved her hand as if to wipe away Beka's doubts. "*Anyway* I ran into Harper and Rommie and they were, like, holding hands..."  
  
"What?" Beka interrupted again, one eyebrow raised skeptically.   
  
"Or something like that, anyway, I asked Andromeda how her avatar was doing, ya know, if she was," Trance used her index finger to draw circles in the air by her ear, "still "affected" by the Balance of Judgment." Trance gave the console a curious look, "I think she's still trying to figure that one out."  
  
"Huh." Beka grunted. Part of her was amused by Trance's display, it reminded her of the achingly bubbly purple girl she lost over a year ago. Another part of her, the nosy big sister part, just *had* to know what was going on between her adopted brother and his life-sized love doll.   
  
She put down her medical scanner and started backing out of med bay. Gesturing over her shoulder with her thumb she said, "I think I forgot something...um, out there...somewhere, can you handle things here for a minute?"  
  
"Only if you tell me *everything*" Trance smiled pretending not to notice the fact that Beka was already out the door.  
  
***********  
  
With the Machine Shop doors securely closed, Harper and Rommie dissolved into giggles. "Did you see the look on his face?" Harper doubled over slapping his knee with unabridged glee.   
  
Rommie's giggles quickly tapered off. "Maybe it's not such a good idea to call my sanity into question so soon after...you know..."  
  
Harper immediately sobered up, "Hey, Doll, it was just a joke, don't worry your pretty head about it." He put one arm around her shoulders and gave a brief squeeze. A thought occurred to him and he frowned, "Hey! My jokes aren't so bad that Dylan'd think you're *crazy* to be laughing at them!" His face was the picture of indignation.  
  
Rommie smiled at Harper's obvious attempt to make her feel better. "Well, you've told that Than joke at least once a week since I've known you."  
  
"Have not."  
  
"Have too."  
  
"Have not!"  
  
"Have too!" The speakers in the machine shop came to life, the voice of Andromeda ticking off the date and time followed by a recording of Harper telling the same joke over and over.  
  
Harper, refusing to admit defeat, stuck his tongue out at the android. A gesture which she promptly returned.   
  
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your view) their exchange was interrupted before it could escalate by Andromeda's hologram fizzing to life between the two. "All right, that's enough, am I going to have to send you two to your room?"  
  
"Oooo, room! Singular, as in one room, two of us, oh Andromeda, my goddess, can you order her to my room? Please? Pretty please?" Harper clasped his hands in front of him, begging unashamedly.  
  
The hologram rolled her non-existent eyes and huffed an imaginary breath. "Dylan was not pleased with the timing of your little prank..."  
  
"Hey, how'd he figure it out so soon?" Harper protested. Andromeda just looked at him, "Yeah, I guess it was a *little* far fetched, huh?"  
  
Andromeda eyed the engineer for a second before smiling sweetly, "Yes it was. Oh, and Harper, the captain requests you join him in his office after you are finished here, he says he has some *extra* work for you to do, something about water reclamation?"  
  
Harper groaned, "Aw man! Not latrine duty! Doesn't that guy have any sense of humor at *all*?"  
  
Andromeda ignored his whining and turned her attention to her avatar, "And as for you,"  
  
"Hey now, she had nothin' to do with it, it was all my idea." Harper instinctively placed himself between Rommie and the hologram.  
  
"Harper," Rommie said, gently moving him aside, "I'm a big girl, I can take it." Her mouth quivered slightly as she held in a grin at the thought of Harper protecting her from Dylan's wrath.   
  
Andromeda's patience was at an end, "Dylan was worried about you, after what you've been through, he just wants to make sure you are ok. He wants you to report to his quarters for additional debriefing." With that the hologram winked out.  
  
"Oooh, additional debriefing, sounds kinky." Harper teased. It was the android version of Andromeda's turn to roll her synthetic eyes as the blond human. Harper snickered and patted the nearby workbench. "Hop up my lovely lady, and let doctah Harpah have a look attcha."  
  
Rommie did as she was told and soon Harper was up to his elbows in her insides. "Wow, the Persieds sure have come a long way in their understanding of artificial life." Harper marveled.  
  
"Yes and they learned most of it from you."   
  
"Aw, shucks Ma'am, twern't nothin'" Harper drawled.  
  
Rommie shrugged her shoulders, "Just stating fact, if it weren't for you..."  
  
"If it weren't for me what? Come on Doll, you know the Harper needs an ego boost, gimme whatcha got darlin'!" When Rommie didn't respond, Harper became concerned. "You ok?"  
  
"There's something poking me near my left side."   
  
Harper looked down, "Nope, not me."  
  
Rommie thumped him on the back of the head. "No, it's inside, and when I move like this, it tickles."  
  
"Tickles?" Harper said skeptically.   
  
"Yeah, just get it out, it's very irritating."  
  
"Ok, I think I see it..." Harper climbed up on the workbench to get a closer look. "There, is that it?" He got his answer in the form of Rommie's hysterical laughter. Harper face broke into a broad sadistic grin.  
  
********  
  
As Beka approached the machine shop, she contemplated her various arsenal of methods she occasionally employed to get her shorty to spill his guts.  
  
"Threaten his Sparky stash? No, too drastic, I don't want to *ever* see him caffeine deprived again. Bribery? Nah, can't afford his price. Blackmail? Oooh, that's promising..." She continued muttering to herself as the doors slid open. Head down, she marched into the machine shop, plan of action firmly in hand.  
  
"Hold still or I'm not going to be able to get it out!" She heard Harper say through fits of giggles.   
  
Beka rounded a stack of junk to see Harper half-lying on top of Rommie who, in turn, was lying on top of a workbench, both were giggling like teenagers. "Ooookay." She said and, without breaking stride, the blonde freighter captain turned on her heel and exited the machine shop through the still open doors.  
  
Harper and Rommie exchanged surprised looks and promptly dissolved into laughter so deliciously evil that Harper slid off the bench.  
  
The last thing the eavesdropping Andromeda heard were her avatar's giggles and Harper's pained "Owie!"  
  
**********  
  
The end. 


End file.
